When the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki said he was going to create two thousand Jobs over the next four years, some people could not understand what the financial strategist was saying, especially when it became a campaign slogan.

They did not see the idea of creating jobs, could be facilitated with the provision of an enabling environment for business to thrive and they did not look out side the box, to find out what stuff, the governor is made of in terms of his passion to bring succor to people of his state with all the connections acquired so far.

From the body language of the governor, it is now becoming clear that human capital will play a major role in the governance of the state. We have seen that much of the planning in the past was centered on the accumulation of physical capital for rapid growth and development, without recognition of the important role played by human capital in the development process at both the state and national level.

The move by Mr. Godwin Obaseki to revive the Benin Technical College is a step towards ensuring that the kind of education we are offering is such that will give them work when they finish school. That was is first assignment on assumption of office to ensure that there is enough productive labor in the state.

In fact, the difference in the level of socio-economic development across nations is attributed not so much to natural resource endowment and the stock of physical capital but to the quality and productivity of human capital. Human capital development tends to improve the quality and productivity of labor, which, in turn, leads to economic growth. Human capital formation is so important that in the Khartoum declaration of 1988, it was asserted that the human dimension is a since qua-non of economic recovery, no Structural Adjustment Programme or economic recovery programme should be formulated or can be implemented without having at its heart, detailed social structural adjustment or economic recovery in the absence of the human imperative.

The concept of human capital refers to the abilities and skills of the human resources of a state or country. While capital formulation refers to the process of acquiring and increasing the number of persons who have skills, education and experience that are critical for the economic growth and political development of a country (Okojie 1995:44). Human capital formulation, Okojie concludes, “Is thus associated with investment in man and his development as a creative and productive person”. The totality of the effort and cost involved in this massive upgrading of the productive capacity of the people constitutes investments in human resources, which is also referred to as manpower development.

In agreement with this view, Yesufu (2000:321) opines, “the essence of human resources development becomes one of ensuring that the workforce is continuously adopted for, and upgraded to meet the new challenges of its total environment”.
This is because the economy is a dynamic entity, which is constantly changing in response to various stimuli such as introduction and discoveries of new products or techniques of production. Therefore, those already on the job require retraining, reorientation or adaptation to meet new challenges. This special human capacity can be acquired and developed in different ways, namely; education, training, health promotion, as well as investment in all social services that influence man’s productive capacities, including telecommunications, transport and housing.

The role of human capital in economic growth cannot be overemphasized. The development of human capital has been recognized by development economists to be an important prerequisite and an invaluable asset for a country’s socio economic and political transformation. It has been pointed by many that human capital formation has contributed immensely to economic growth.

Besides acting as an important vehicle of achieving equitable income distribution, human resource development is also a potent means of addressing the problem of poverty. In the words of Harbism (1973:3) “Human Resources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations capital and natural resources are passive factors of production; human beings are the active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, economic and political organizations, and carry forward national development”. Clearly, a country or a state, which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people and to utilize them effectively in, the economy will be unable to develop anything else.

Human resources development can, therefore, be conceived as the process of developing the skills, knowledge and the capabilities of the people of the society, which are needed in the labour market for the production of goods and services.

Generally, human resources are developed in several ways: The first is through formal education, involving, primary, Technical, secondary, and higher education. The second is in-service or “on-the-job” training, which is systematic or informal training programme in employing institutions, in adult education programme and through membership of various political, social, religious and cultural groups. The third way is individual self-development. This occurs when individuals seek to acquire greater knowledge, skills or capabilities through preparation on their own initiatives. Human resources can also be developed through improvement on the health of the working population by means of better medical and public health programme and improvement in nutrition, which jointly increase the working capacity of people on a man-hour basis as well as over a working life.

Human beings constitute the key development input as producers and at the same time, the key beneficiaries of economic growth. This is because natural and physical would lie idle and remain unexploited without man. Any government that will be deemed as succeeding is the governments that take its human relations seriously and ensure the workforce are equipped for the task they are engaged for.

The human resources are a critical variable in the growth process and worthy development; they are not only means, but also more importantly, the ends that must be served to achieve economic progress. The journey to get the two thousand jobs has started, and anyone still in doubt should begin to look outside the box and see the opportunities that will be opened up for young people.

Eubaldus Enahoro is Assistant Editor with the Nigerian Observer